


A House Divided

by theragingstorm



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Broken Friendship, Civil War, Civil War (Marvel), Introspection, Language, Multi, Multiple Narrators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 22:25:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6060292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theragingstorm/pseuds/theragingstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven different Avengers' perspectives on the Civil War.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A House Divided

**Author's Note:**

> The first of probably many Avengers fics, and it's profanity-riddled angst. Oh well.

**1\. Tony**

If he died in this war, which he probably would, he had the perfect quote to put on his tombstone.

_The road to hell is paved with good intentions._

(If the guy who carved tombstones didn’t like that, then he could put _I have mixed drinks about feelings._ That was good too.)

For the first part of his life, so many people had died because he didn’t give a shit. But it had gotten worse once he’d actually started to care. Once he cared about people, he just ended up hurting them more.

He’d lost count of the times when Pepper and Rhodey had almost died. He’d almost destroyed the world with Ultron. Now…his friends hated him.

And he didn’t blame them one bit.

Oh sure, he was trying to do the right thing. As usual. He’d been fucking up for his entire life because no one had been able to rein him in; was it so wrong to set some limitations so no one else could make his mistakes?

But Steve didn’t see it like that.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried over-and-fucking-over to get along with him; because damn it, he couldn’t help liking the guy. He was good and hopeful and inspiring and everything Tony was not.

And he was now the official head of the “Tony Stark Is A Selfish Asshole” club.  

Figures.

How could he have known how far Steve was willing to go for Barnes? That he would choose him over _everyone_ , even his friends. 

How could Tony have known that Barnes was being hunted down; that signing the Accords was essentially agreeing to his death? It wasn’t like Steve had told him about that or anything.

Tony wanted people _not_ to wreak havoc and destruction with no consequences. He didn’t want more people to die on his account. He didn’t want to fight his friends; he just wanted to actually manage to do the right thing _for once in his life–_

He should’ve known.

Where had Romanoff put the vodka, again?

 

//

 

**2\. Bucky**

(Deep, mind-numbing cold; the metallic taste in his mouth from body fluids that spurted upwards; sharp stinging pains in his lower body and the guttural laughs from his handlers–)

He’d chosen to wear colors now instead of the dull black of his old uniform. He’d chosen to go back to Steve, despite how many of his memories he still lacked, because he knew, deep down, that Steve was light and hope and home.

He wasn’t perfect, like so many people believed. He was pretty fucked up too, though not as much as Bucky. He had a dark side, and that dark side was coming out as the two of them were threatened.

But Bucky had spent long enough with Hydra to know true evil when he saw it. And Steve would never be that.

Granted, from what he’d seen of Howard’s son, he wasn’t evil either. Just…misguided? Misguided. That seemed right. 

Misguided he could understand and maybe forgive, even if the younger Stark hated him. Not like he could blame him for that, anyway.

(The whir of a old car’s engine; the red of a girl’s lipstick; the same red that bubbled from the man’s mouth after a bullet lodged in his gut–)

Bucky was full of broken glass and shadows, with the blood of dozens of people on his hands. Maybe he deserved to die for what he’d done.

But Steve was good. Steve wanted him to live. So he would stay, and he would protect him. He knew he had to. And that transcended memory.

(Blue eyes full of love; a bone saw going through his shoulder; the cloudy waters of the Potomac that he’d swum through, looking and searching and not giving up–)

 

//

 

**3\. Wanda**

It didn’t hurt as much as Pietro’s death. She’d only known them for a year, after all. Maybe she could brush it off and pretend that she’d seen it coming all along. Hadn’t she said in the first place that the Avengers were careless and destructive?

But…

Natasha.

Vision.

They had counted for something. They had mattered.

How could they have done this?

And how _dare_ Stark claim he was vouching for accountability. The fucking _nerve_ of him. After all that time screwing around doing whatever he wanted, never facing consequences of any sort, now he said that he wanted others to accept limitations?

And she’d begun to think that she might actually forgive him.

She’d made her choice, and this time, Wanda made up her mind to never go back. She could forget the others…couldn’t she?

(She’d seen desperation and fear every day in her childhood, and mistaken it for weakness. She’d looked into the eyes of evil as a woman and been blind to what she was really staring it. Pietro would have teased her about the irony of that coming from a girl who could read minds.)

Why did her her brother have to die just a year before she needed him the most?

 

//

 

**4\. Scott**

The Avengers were supposed to be a beacon of hope, a light in the darkness, paragons of virtue.

What a load of bullshit that turned out to be.

He didn’t understand all the bitterness and any of the history behind it. Nobody would tell him why Iron Man took Captain America’s siding against him so personally. But he did know that these people were supposed to be friends and a team, and that they were tearing each other apart.

He really wished that he didn’t have to get involved. But he was a superhero now too, sort of. 

Scott knew that he was too new and too inexperienced to ever matter to his teammates the way they did to each other. 

At least this way, now that he was fighting a war, he could pick a side objectively. 

That sounded goddamn idiotic. But he was in a war. Everything was goddamn idiotic. And what his teammates were was goddamn _insane_.

 

//

 

**5\. Sam**

He was one of the lucky ones and he knew it. There was never a question whose side he would take, and his values managed to line up with the people he was closest to.

He missed Natasha. He could understand why she had sided with Stark, but he still wished that someone so lonely didn’t have to fight against the only people she loved.

He knew that Clint felt the same way; could see the palpable pain on the archer’s face every time he looked at her.

Vision would always put his values first, but even the android was conflicted about possibly hurting Wanda. 

Wanda herself felt betrayed.

As for Steve and Tony…theirs had been a difficult friendship. But Sam knew that they hated this war just as much as everyone else did.

Sam couldn’t dwell on it too long, though. He couldn’t believe the nerve of the registration act; knew that the government’s attempt to control minorities – even superhumans – was wrong. Besides, Steve was his friend. That, at least, was something to hold on to.

Everything else was going to shit. He had to be grateful for being able to keep someone he cared about, this time.

 

//

 

**6\. Natasha**

Mission before feelings. 

Do what you have to do, and worry about it later. Or better yet, not at all.

That’s what she’d been taught.

She hated that she still defaulted back to it, all these years later. She thought she’d been getting better at not being a mindless monster, for God’s sake.

She _did_ agree with Tony, damn him.

She _did_ want a system of accountability. Maybe she could prevent more deaths if people could be responsible for their own actions. 

Her ledger was still red, after all her trying. Maybe she needed to accept limitations for once.

That was what her mind said.

But Clint…and Steve…Wanda…Sam…

They thought she’d betrayed them. 

This was what she believed was right. She couldn’t change her mind. She was not going to change her mind.

But she missed them like hell. There was a constant, phantom pain in her chest. A hole where her screwy, messy, childish former teammates – the only family she’d ever had – had once made a home.

Now they were gone.

Natasha resigned herself to it. She was a monster no matter what she did, so why not be a monster who at least did what it believed was right?

God, why hadn’t Clint come with her?

_Бог чертовски побери._

 

//

 

**7\. Steve**

He knew what Captain America was. Captain America was perfect; the symbol of freedom, virtue, and justice. Never did anything wrong. Never made a mistake or a selfish choice.

Well, guess fucking what? He wasn’t just Captain America. He was also Steve Rogers.

He had no intentions of letting the government, who’d been sending him out to do their dirty work since the war, call him a vigilante and attempt to shame him for other peoples’ choices. He wasn’t going to be someone’s propaganda machine or toy soldier any longer.

It wasn’t like he wanted to do this to his friends. He did love them. He hadn’t just been telling Tony that. 

Then again…there was definitely more to his stance than politics; and that had really fucking pissed his friends off, and he knew it.

But like Natasha had said, Bucky just meant too much to him. He was his one sacred thing. He would not lose him; never again.

He hated doing this. He hated it. But there was no other option for him if he wanted a shred of a chance for himself and the most important person in his life.

Favoritism was a real bitch to be on the opposite side of.

War was a real bitch to be a part of.

And a war based on what mattered more; your values, your conscience, or the ones you loved…that was the cruelest bitch of all.

 

 

–Fin–


End file.
